Hello Twin Lakes!
What June gloom? It’s gorgeous outside! By the time this Sandblaster is distributed, we’ll be in the middle of our Men’s Invitational and what appears to be an incredibly nice stretch of weather, with temps up in the 80’s! I’ve been away from the club a lot more than I like, I’ve had a lot of work travel and commitments that have kept me occupied and I’m having serious golf FOMO. I hope everyone else has been able to get to the club to enjoy the golf course, pool and clubhouse!
Late May and early June are very busy times at the club with the Men’s and Women’s Invitationals, the Memorial Day Couples tournament and opening the swimming pool, so please be patient with staff as they are juggling a lot trying to ensure a gracious experience for all members. The pool will be open weekends only until Federal Way Public Schools lets out for summer vacation.
No trivia night for June, but please come out for Rock ‘n Roll Bingo on June 19th and Paint Night on June 25th! We have our Food Truck event on July 14th followed by our Martini and Jazz event.
We continue to recruit new members, many of whom are referrals from our current members. Referrals are our best source for new memberships, please tell your friends what a great value Twin Lakes is in the Puget Sound, and bring them out for a guest round!
Warm Regards, Erika
erikasbot@twinlakesgolf.net
jeffebot@twinlakesgolf.net
Hello all and happy June!
It was wonderful to see so many members out for a fun Memorial Weekend! The pool was busy, and we had an incredible 90 people play in the couple’s event, which was certainly a great start to the summer season! You may have noticed all of the beautiful flowers throughout the clubhouse, pool and pro shop. Those are courtesy of the Women’s Invitational and Ricky Noble who graciously provided the large hanging flowers at the entrance to the clubhouse and pro shop. They are a wonderful addition, and provide a lovely welcome to everyone. I also want to point out the tremendous efforts of Diana Rawlings and Teri Stewart, who spent many hours planting the flower pots on the patio, back of the clubhouse and on the pool deck. Thank you for helping to make the club so happy and inviting!
This month, I would like to highlight the incredible work of Lorenzo Jackson, our head of clubhouse maintenance. Lorenzo has done a great job with continuous daily maintenance for all buildings. I am deeply grateful for all his work and wonderfully positive attitude. He is a great asset to our team! Please take a moment to introduce yourselves to him when you see him around the club.
In addition to Lorenzo, we have always had many members volunteering to lend a helping hand on several projects and general maintenance. I am so proud and thankful to be part of a community that truly values friendship and pride in ownership. We continually appreciate all of your efforts!
I have one last very important reminder! The on-course bathroom code is 3583. Before you leave the area, please help us by closing the doors and hitting “lock” on the keypad. This will help us keep unwanted community artists from decorating the building when it is unattended. Thank you in advance!
Birthdays
Anniversaries
René & Ric Ewing
What a change in the golf weather we are having lately. I believe that you would all agree that it is about time that the rain stopped, and we get our Seattle summer started. We ended May with our Women’s Invitational (72 players) and our Memorial Day Couples (90 players) event. Now we are working on our Men’s Invitational (84 players) for the next few days. After which, we go back to our normal routine with our Tuesday Women’s 18- & 9-hole competitions, our Wednesday Night Men’s League, and our Couple Mixers on Thursday nights.
Wednesday the Men’s Invitational started with their practice round. Thursday 1pm shotgun was the beginning of tournament rounds. This is the rest of the week’s schedule regarding the Golf Course & Driving Range. The golf course will be closed on Friday till 2pm; we will be hosting the horse race after their golf starting on holes 1,2,3,8,9. Tee times will be available to play the back 9 only after 3pm. Saturday, the golf course will be closed until 6pm.
Driving Range hours this week:
Saturday opens after 2:30pm – Men’s Invitational practice in morning/staff needs to clean pick so you have balls to use in afternoon.
For the men’s league participants, the Men’s Presidents Cup matches start on June 20. The pod matches need to be completed by Aug 1. The winners of each pod will then advance to the final match play event to determine the overall winner which will be announced at the end of the year banquet along with the “Winward Cup” finals. We still have a few spots open for this match play event.
Our annual Battle of the Sexes will be held on July 6. We have a field size between 36 – 40 players. Men vs Women for the 2025 bragging rights. Our women are our last year’s braggers. Frankie and Ramon will be drawing the pairings once again. We will keep you posted to the times/match schedule as we get closer to the battle date.
It’s time to open your calendars to participate in the Cross-Country Horse Race on Wednesday, June 25th starting on #10 at 5:30pm. The sign-up sheet is posted on the golf shop window. If you have time that evening to come watch, it is a fun event to watching the players play hole 10 to the 11th green; Hole 12 to the 13th green; Hole 14; and then Hole 15 to the 16th green. If you are interested in participating, call the golf shop and sign up. This is a mixed event using the ABCD random draw to determine the pairings.
We continue to replenish the Sand/Seed bottles in the golf cars, on #9 green and at the #1 tee. The golf operations staff thanks all of you for using these bottles as it is noticeable how often we must fill them. Please, as a reminder, keep up with sanding divots, raking bunkers and fixing ball marks. John Leslie and his staff worked extremely hard to get the course in great shape and mother nature has really helped us this spring. Thank you for all your help in doing your part to keep our conditions going in the right direction.
Regarding booking tee times, with the golf course starting to get busier and busier we need to make sure that if you booked a tee time and are not going to play, please call us and get it cancelled. This will give every member a fair and equal chance to enjoy our golf course. Also, please try to add all the names of players into your tee time online and/or when you call the golf shop to reserve. This will also ensure we have all your golf bags and push carts ready for you upon arrival.
For now, enjoy the great weather that is coming our way, spending time with your family and friends, and most of all… enjoy swinging the golf club!
See you around the club!
Kathy, Ben, and the Golf Operations Staff
Our “Sandy” award this month goes to both Dan McNeil and Scott Kawahara. Dan & Scott are quick to make sure that we have plenty of help during our women’s and men’s competitions and outside events. Thank you, Dan & Scott, for your past service to the club and your continued commitment/dedication to making sure that we continue to move forward with our improvements on the golf shop side as well as on the golf course.
It is tournament season at Twin Lakes, the weather forecasts are cooperating, and the course conditions remain in great shape. Thanks to John Leslie and his crew for their constant hard work.
In case you missed the email sent out in May to membership regarding our new flags, flagsticks, and practice green equipment, please join us in thanking the Balldropper group for their generous donation. This new equipment was well-needed and truly looks great. The new single flag colors now give us the flexibility to place pins in a wider variety of locations on each green – areas that were previously underutilized. This helps preserve high-traffic zones, resulting in more consistent and playable green speeds. Additionally, the simplified flag system reduces the time our greenskeepers spend on each hole. Thanks again for the amazing donation, and we hope everyone likes this exciting change!
We have a committee personnel update: Stephen Sealey has been elevated to co-chair of this committee. Thank you, Stephen!
As always, John and his team has been productive with projects throughout the course:
● Wood chips disbursement in multiple new areas amongst course
● Fairways have been sprayed, grass clippings should no longer be present
● Bunkers have been sprayed for weed growth, bunkers look a lot cleaner now
● Hole #15 hillside beautification, clean up, and improved playability. Moss killer has been sprayed, which is why the hill is discolored, it will be scraped and removed
● Several pot holes along the cart paths have been filled
Potential upcoming projects we have discussed:
● Continue bunker rehabs- start on the back 9
● Concrete tiles replacing old stairs on hole 2 tee box
● Hole 3 pond cleanup: fence, edges, fountain, etc.
● Hole 3 hillside clean up in between blue and white tees
● Crushed gravel fill on areas near and around cart paths
Now that it is golf carts on the course season, please remember to get back to the cart path once you approve 30 yards of the greens. As a reminder to all members and your guests, please do your part to assist with course conditions by following cart path rules, repairing pitch and ball marks, and sanding your divots. These small efforts add up in a big way and help the golf course recover more quickly.
If you have other ideas you would like the Greens Committee to address, you are always welcome to reach out. For other questions, comments, or concerns please email tpac14@gmail.com and/or ssealey16@gmail.com and we will review with the committee.
Thank you,
Tyler Pac & Stephen Sealey
Committee Co-Chairs
It feels summer is here and there has been a lot going on with the Women’s Division.
We started off the month with Anna Lee’s low net score of 66 on Ace Day. Our Team won their matches handily at Broadmoor. Captain’s Cup got under way and our defending champion, Chong Sena, won her first match! Sweeps was a partners best ball competition. Kim Crahan and Stephanie Papke got 1st place in flight #1. Angela Lee/Julia Larson and Sue Sohn/Hui Suk So tied for 3rd in flight #3. Jen Dzubay and Diane Meyers also played. SWGA City Championship is this month at Sahalee, Sharon Lorenzo, Angela Lee and Sue Sohn are playing. Good luck gals, we will all be rooting for you!
We had our Invitational. The Low Net winning team is our own Anna Lee and In Sook Woo! Low Gross went to Karen Johnson from Home Course and Di Chow from Riverbend. Frankie and Denise did a great job coordinating all of the details. Special thanks go to our stalwart volunteers, June McNeese, Coralee Owsley, Terri Stewart, Teri Jones, Sue Stevens, Diana Rawlings, Gayla Dahl, Kathleen Ouellet and Sue Hebert for your help. Big thanks to Dan McNeil, Scot Kalwahara, and Jeff Eberle for their assistance, and, of course, Marv Osterhout and Jill McBroom for their donations of libations on 15!
Coming up on June 17 we will have the first round of President’s Cup. The deadline to register is June 13th and handicaps on that date will be used for the first round. Pairings and Tee Times will be made by the committee and sent out by June 16th .
Guest Day is being planned by Hui Suk So, Minhee Chung and Sue Hebert. The date is Thursday, July 31st. As in the past we will be looking for hole sponsors and raffle baskets and donations. Anyone donating a finished basket will have their $10 entry fee waived. If you don’t want to donate a whole basket we are accepting donations of items like wine or other quality items and we will put them together. Please leave your donations in the locker room “Bride’s” area (the counter next to the showers) by July 25th. You can also give items to Sally or Sue for safekeeping.
The donation for sponsoring a hole is $100. One hole can be sponsored by a group so get your group together, collect $100 and you get your names on a sign! This program enabled the Women’s Division to donate $1000 to the club last year to upgrade the lighting at the entrance of the Club House. Hole sponsor forms will be sent via email later this month.
The Social Committee is pleased to be bringing back Rock N Roll Bingo in the lounge Thursday June 19th. Members and guests had a fabulous time when it debuted in April, and with Yacht Rock as the theme this month, we are sure it will be another great night! Brush up on your Steely Dan, Toto, and the Doobie Brothers and get ready for a fun night of music with friends!
Teams battled again for the coveted Trivia Trophy on May 16th, answering trivia questions including Name the Logo, It’s a Date, Are You Smarter than a Middle Schooler and Say it Out Loud.
Team “Usual Suspects” with the overall high score for the night!
Save the Dates and watch for details in your Club Emails:
Meeting: Second Thursday – 5:30pm
Meeting: When Needed
Meeting: Third Wednesday – 5:30pm
Meeting: Every Other Month
Meeting: Third Thursday
Actively seeking and appointing committee members!
Meeting: Second Wednesday – 6:00 pm
Marlies Scott-Wenzel & Casey Gibson (Chair)
Meeting: Third Tuesday—6:00 pm
Meeting: Wednesday – 6:00 pm
To help promote the game of golf by offering a challenging and beautiful course and other complementary facilities that are affordable, inclusive, and inviting. Provide a thriving comprehensive recreational and social venue offering its members, guests, and community partners exceptional experiences to play, relax and socialize in a tranquil and peaceful environment.